Rwanda’s UFACO Garment Ltd shares benefits of embracing ISO certification for a trusted market

By Elias HAKIZIMANA.

Quality standards of locally made products especially clothes and textiles has raised public concern for both local and foreign clients since the initiative was incepted in Rwanda a couple of years back.

To streamline the market, the government of Rwanda through the Ministry of Trade and Industries (MINICOM) and Rwanda Standards Board (RSB) has made significant strides to evaluate and help local commodity producers to add value to their products and embrace the journey of local and international standards certification.

During a 5-day 40th Meeting of The Iso Tc 176 Quality Management Systems and Quality Assurance that is taking place in Kigali from 09th to 13th October, 2023, to learn about the progress in international standardization activities, Isaac Ndayisenga, the Managing Director of UFACO Garment Limited, a local factory that manufactures textiles and fashions says that the ISO 9001 Quality Management System (QSM) certification they got from RSB  helped them to tape into the wide market and to regain trust from clients.

UFACO Garment Ltd started its official activities in Rwanda since 2016 at Sainte Famille and later shifted to Masoro Special Economic Zone of industries under the government order.

The factory manufactures various kinds of textiles including shirts, trousers, costumes, for both men and women, plus babies’ fashions.

“Before we started a process of standardization of our products, we had some challenges at the market, because clients could not trust made in Rwanda clothes, saying they cannot wear, this pushed us to embrace the Rwanda Standards Boards (RSB) to know if they can help us get a standardization mark that proves the quality of our manufactured clothes.” Ndayisenga says, noting that the mistrust of their clothes was not only for the local market, but also foreigners could doubt of quality.

“Many public institutions embraced our products after obtaining the ISO 9001 Quality Management System (QMS) certification, we have at least 8 public institutions that order the uniforms from our factory and some foreign institutions contact us after learning that we have got a quality certification. Besides retaining clients’ trust, the late improved our working framework and collaboration between public and private institutions,” Ndayisenga says.

UFACO Garment Ltd is planning to launch branches in region, starting from Zimbabwe.

Speaking during the opening event of this meeting, Raymond Murenzi, Director General of Rwanda Standards Board (RSB) mentioned that Rwanda participation in international standardization journey has significantly increased especially in the previous 5 years from the 30 ISO TCs in 2018 to 80 technical committees and 3 ISO Policy development committees.

“As RSB, we remain committed to continue increasing our participation in international standardization activities coordinated at ISO level to achieve our shared wish of raising awareness on the use of international standards to sustain their role in sustainable development and promotion of international trade.” Murenzi noted.

“Some companies in the 6 EAC countries have acquired certifications against international standards, in Rwanda,  we have around 30 certifications of this kind (ISO 9001) whoever has this certification keeps the trust that his/her products are of needed quality, the banks, big companies, public and private institutions have this certification, we also encourage other different companies to embrace these certifications so that they raise their clients’ trust,” Murenzi added.

According to Murenzi, meeting plays a vital role for Rwanda, from experience gaining, a trust to host international meetings and conferences and experience sharing where local factories will learn from the 80 ISO TC 176 experts coming from 36 countries who will also visit them on the field.

Richard Niwenshuti, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade and industry lauded the efforts of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for the good collaboration and support to its members, including Rwanda, in advancing and improving national quality systems through standardization and other related programs.

He reiterated that Rwanda participation in ISO activities has significantly increased since a couple of years ago.

“We are committed to keep the same pace. On the side of the Government and the Ministry of Trade and Industry in particular, we will continue to support the standardization activities and those related to national quality infrastructure. However, the Government alone cannot attain the set goals in this area of quality infrastructure, the involvement of development Partners and Industry will remain of paramount.” Niwenshuti said.

Jeffrey Hunt, Chair of ISO on quality management and quality assurance said that the meeting is of importance to discuss what the ISO certifications mean from the local, Regional to the international levels.

His colleague, José Alcorta, ISO Head of standards development said that the meeting will strengthen trade improvement collaboration in the region and engage stakeholders at the national level to boost standardization mutual benefits.

The 5-day 40th Meeting of The Iso Tc 176 Quality Management Systems and Quality Assurance was organized by RSB in partnership with different partners including the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Rwanda Fertilizer Company, Ubumwe Grand Hotel, UFACO Garments, Prime Insurance and Ultimate Forest Company Ltd.  

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